Natural pigments & dyes in Balinese traditional crafts

What certainly remains imprinted in the memory after a trip to Bali are the colours, the green tones of the crops and forests, the sunsets, the crystal clear waters, but above all the colors of the fabrics and brocades of the sacred clothes, the flowers and the fruit offered as gifts during ceremonies, everything speaks through the colors becoming the visual identity of the island. It is therefore not surprising to discover that in Bali there is the Nawasanga, a color wheel that maps all aspects of reality. Its origins are to be identified with the Hindu and Buddhist traditions of Java from the 13th to 16th centuries, which merged with those of Bali focused on nature and ancestors. In the Nawasanga circle, nine sacred areas, eight compass orientations and the center are identified, each area corresponds to a color. Through this system, associations are made between deities, temples, parts of the body, vegetables and days of the week. Fundamental in Nawasanga is the balance in the duality that defines the cosmic order, a metaphor for this balance is the combination of black and white but all the colors contained in the wheel contribute to activating the suggestive power of the mind.